Accessory outfitter Mophie announced the launch of three new charging devices geared towards charging iPhones, iPods and other USB-charge compatible devices. Per iPodNN, the first product is a US$15 Low-Profile USB Car Charger which plugs into a vehicle’s power socket and provides a single USB outlet.

The company also released a new Dual USB Wall Charger that provides two USB ports for powering or charging two different items from one AC outlet. The device plugs into wall sockets only and features a folding design for better portability and retails for US$20.

Finally, the company also introduced a dual application charger works in the car and home, the Car and Wall International Charger. The device has a swiveling arm for connecting to car power sockets at odd or difficult angles. It provides USB power from a car socket, wall socket and can work internationally with Mophie’s International Adaptor Power Kit. The charger goes for US$25 and the International Adaptor Travel Kit retails for US$15.

Accessory provider RadTech announced the immediate availability of its ClearCal anti-glare film sheets for the 17-inch MacBook Pro and 20-inch iMac on Wednesday. Per The Mac Observer, In addition to cutting glare from Apple’s glossy displays, the film sheets also help reduce the visibility of fingerprints and streaks.

ClearCal sheets are reusable and can be cleaned with water.

The sheets’ sizes are available for the 13″, 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro, along with the 20″ and 24″ iMac and the 24″ LED Cinema Display. Pricing starts at US$19.95.

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer who has partnered with Apple on numerous products, is now rumored to have secured the production of Apple’s anticipated tablet device. Per DigiTimes, Foxconn is rumored to be manufacturing an Apple tablet device according to “market sources”. The device is expected to be for sale in the first quarter of 2010, with an alleged initial shipment of 300,000 to 400,000 devices. No fixed price was given.

“The sources indicated they believe the tablet PC features will focus more on e-book functionality rather than music, and that based on Apple’s marketing strategy, long battery life, quick Internet connectivity and an easy-to-use user interface will be key features of the device,” the report said.

It also claimed that the device will sport a 10.6″ display. Additional speculation included the detail that Foxconn would obtain panels for the tablet from its subsidiary, Innolux Display.

As Apple reportedly prepares to launch its own tablet, other hardware makers are allegedly doing the same as well. The report said that sources expect HP and other computer manufacturers to debut their own tablet-style touchscreen devices soon after, in the second quarter of 2010.

The long-awaited tablet is rumored to include 3G functionality and will run on a custom chip built by P.A. Semi.

The information regarding marketing the tablet as an e-reader would seem to bolster recent reports that Apple has reached out to publishers and gained their interest in reproducing content on the device.

A recently released build of Apple’s upcoming Mac OS X 10.6.2 operating system reveals a slew of changes, fixes and tweaks according to AppleInsider.

A pre-release build of the next update to Mac OS X 10.6 was seeded to developers Monday, bringing a long list of changes, fixes and tweaks.

People familiar with the latest build, dubbed 10C514, said the latest update has general focus areas that affect just about every facet of the operating system, from the applications like the Address Book and QuickTime, to services like Spotlight and Time Machine, and basic hardware functions like USB and Bluetooth. The disk image has a 445.4MB file size.

The update reportedly features dozens of areas of change, including fixes for AppleScript, graphics drivers, Xtype, OpenCL and more.

The pre-release build also allegedly comes with a handful of known issues, including hang-ups with the DVD player, crashing of the parental controls preference pane, and a glitch where the system does not recognize an optical drive.

Monday’s build is the first that Mac OS X 10.6.2 has been seen by developers.

Adobe announced on Monday that its developers will be able to use an upcoming version of its Flash Professional software to create apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. The announcement, made at the company’s Max developer conference in Los Angeles, coincides with the unveiling of its Flash Player 10.1.

According to Macworld, Flash Player 10.1 will be operable with a large number of smartphones, though none of them currently include the iPhone. Apple’s smartphone doesn’t run Flash in any form, and Monday’s announcements don’t change that. What has changed is the ability of Adobe developers to use the Flash platform to build standalone apps for Apple’s mobile devices.

New features in the upcoming Flash CS5 Professional will allow developers to write applications and compile the code to run on the iPhone and iPod touch. Applications can target the iPhone OS 3.0 and later.

“We are ecstatic to announce that we’re enabling you to use your Flash development tools to build applications and compile them to run natively on the iPhone,” said John Loiacono, head of Adobe’s Creative Solutions business unit, who made the announcement at Adobe Max.

A public beta of Flash CS5 will be available on Adobe’s Web site later this year and the final shipping version could arrive anywhere between March and September of 2010, according to Adobe’s typical upgrade cycle. The CS5 version will contain a feature that allows developers to export Flash’s native FLA files to IPA, the iPhone app format.

Developers can create brand new content, or repurpose content they’ve already built, for the iPhone. “In some ways it’s more exciting, because they can actually charge for the apps and get revenue coming in,” Voltmer added. “Apple’s going to be excited because they’ll see more revenue from all these new developers; and end-users get more choices.”

Though Adobe is still unable to offer a standard Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod touch because Apple’s license terms prohibit plug-ins for the built-in Safari browser, these new Flash apps are different: iPhone apps built with Adobe Flash Professional CS5 don’t include any runtime interpreted code. The applications would go through the same approval process, and follow the same rules and procedures, as other iPhone apps to be sold in the App Store.

Flash Player 10.1 is due in beta form later this year and final form in the first half of 2010, will be available for many smartphones: Google Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm WebOS, and Nokia Symbian. Adobe holds out hope that eventually, Flash will arrive in its full form on the iPhone, in spite of complaints about the mobile version from the very top of Apple. “We do know that people are looking to have a Flash-enabled experience on their iPhone,” Voltmer said, “But it’s really up to Apple to finalize that and to let us get that working. We’d love to work with Apple, but Apple does control the hardware, and at this point we’re waiting for them.”

If you’ve been having the market share debate with your friends for years (if not decades), this may come as a welcome surprise. Per an article on The Loop, nearly 12% of U.S. computer-owning households now own a Mac according to the NPD Group’s second annual Household Penetration Study. The new report places the market share up three percentage points from the market-research firm’s 2008 findings.

According to the report, 72% of those Mac users have laptops, and are very likely to live in mixed environments, a staggering 85% of those Mac users surveyed also own a Windows-based PC and 66% of those households contain three or more computers, compared with 29% for Windows households.

Those in Mac households are also greater consumers of consumer electronics. The survey found that 63% of Apple households own an iPod, compared to 36% of overall computer owners. 32% own a DSLR camera (versus 12%), while 18% own a 50+” LCD TV (versus 8%).

The report went on to explain that Mac households tended to make more money and thus had additional income for gadgets. In a statement accompanying the report, Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis, wrote, “36% of Apple computer owners reported household incomes greater than $100,000, compared to 21% of all consumers. With a higher household income, though, it’s not a surprise that those consumers are making more electronics purchases.”

He also said that Apple households own twice as many consumer electronics devices—48—as the average computer household.

The results come from a survey of more than 2300 of NPD’s online panelists.

Per the WCPO web site, a frustrated customer at the Kenwood Towne Centre Apple store Thursday afternoon ended up going to jail after police say he showed an employee a gun.

According to court records, Donald Goodrich, 38, of Westwood, was frustrated his iPhone was not working properly.

He told the employee he was, “So mad, I could pop a 9mm at it.”

The Apple Store employee allegedly told Goodrich there was no need for that with Goodrich replying “I’ll do it right now. Look!”

Goodrich then allegedly opened the right side of his shirt, displaying a black, 9mm handgun.

Goodrich had a concealed weapon permit.

The employee told Goodrich she’d get his phone fixed and walked him over to a technician in the store, then told her manager, who called police.

Goodrich is charged with aggravated menacing, causing fear of harm to an Apple employee and also faces a carrying concealed weapons charge for not telling the deputy he had a gun. He is scheduled for arraignment Friday morning.

A series of Dutch-based Google AdSense ads appear to have prematurely revealed new Apple iMacs, entry level white MacBooks and Mac minis. According to AppleInsider, the ads, now mostly removed from Google searches, appeared over the weekend, suggested “thinner iMacs, redesigned polycarbonate MacBooks with thinner, sleeker enclosures, and speed-bumped Mac minis,” could be revealed sooner than later, even as early as this month.

Italian, German, Austrian and Belgium Google searches also reportedly produced similar results.

The ads revealed a “faster and more affordable than ever,” Mac mini “from only €499,” a €100 saving on the current cheapest price.

Alongside the Mac mini, the white MacBook notebook was listed as “thinner, lighter and stronger,” according to some translations – “Dunner, lichter en krachtiger! Gratis bezorging. Bestel vandaag” on the Belgium version of Google – while the new iMac was described as “ultra thin,” starting from €1099.

Rumours of a redesigned iMac with a “thinner, organic design, likely with smoothed or rounded edges” have also been doing the rounds for the last few weeks with analysts helping to fuel claims a refresh is imminent. Observers have claimed a new look iMac could be close to the current Apple Cinema Display in design.

The reports of a new Mac mini, with faster NVIDIA graphics processor appear to be new.

It’s not terribly exciting, but it’s been long-anticipated and may just be useful.

After, oh, several years of treating the Mac OS X platform like a second class citizen and letting third party outfits pick up the slack on syncing, Research In Motion has finally released version 1.0.0 of its BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac software. The application, a 26.7 megabyte download, allows Mac users to sync data from Mac applications like iCal, Address Book, Microsoft Entourage and others, as well as add and remove applications, schedule automatic backups, encrypt backup files and install software updates for their BlackBerry smartphones.

The application also integrates BlackBerry Media Sync, enabling Mac users to sync their iTunes music collections.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager 1.0.0 is available as a free download and requires Mac OS X 10.5, iTunes 7.2 or later and BlackBerry Device Software 4.2 or later to install and run.